Wet'n'Wild Gold Coast — Attraction in Gold Coast City

I visited this water park on 24th January 2025, and while I had high hopes for the experience, the visit left much to be desired. Let me break it down.

The official website states the entry price is $119 AUD. However, to fully enjoy the popular rides without spending two-thirds of your day queuing, you’re encouraged to pay an additional $179 AUD for fast-track access. This, in my opinion, is absurd.

I’ll just state the issues I encountered without debating right or wrong:

Tube Transportation:

For several attractions, guests are expected to carry their own tubes up multiple flights of stairs. There’s no automated system in place to transport the tubes. Instead, guests who finish the ride hand over their tube to those waiting to go up. Quite an outdated approach for a modern water park.

Staff Assistance:

None of the staff offer proactive help to guests. For example, lifeguards do not assist patrons in getting off rides or handling equipment. Their sole task appears to be waving their arms and telling people to step aside from the ride exit track. Even for rides where there is a 99% chance of guests falling into the water, the lifeguards merely stand far away instead of waiting at the exit to assist guests in surfacing quickly, thereby reducing the risk of choking on water.

Additionally, other staff members also lack initiative. For instance, when it comes to handling tubes, they don’t assist with transferring them between exiting and entering guests. Instead, it is entirely up to guests who have just finished the ride to hand over the tube to those waiting to start. This not only reduces operational efficiency but also makes the overall experience feel unnecessarily laborious.

Queue Management: While I understand some rides require sequential use (one guest finishes before the next starts), others—such as the Super 8 Aqua Racer—could have been better managed. The ride forces eight participants to start simultaneously under the pretext of a “race,” even when the track ahead is clear. Why not let guests go individually instead of holding everyone back for a contrived competition?

Efficiency Issues: The inefficiency of the park’s operations is largely due to the lack of proactivity from the staff. If lifeguards were to help guests exit the rides more quickly, and other staff members took responsibility for transferring tubes from exiting guests to those waiting, the overall efficiency could be significantly improved. Unfortunately, this level of engagement seems absent, despite the staff’s significantly higher wages compared to similar roles in East Asia.

Unfriendliness to Solo Visitors Many rides require two or more participants, but there’s no “single rider” option to pair up solo visitors. For example, on the “Tornado” ride, which accommodates four people per tube, I witnessed instances where groups of two were sent up without any effort by staff to pair them with other solo or smaller groups of guests. Even worse, a tube capable of seating four people was frequently occupied by only two, significantly reducing operational efficiency and worsening the queue times for others. Surely, with a bit of communication and basic coordination, staff could easily group guests to maximise tube usage and improve the experience for everyone.

Scorching Ground: Many areas of the park use heat-absorbing materials for flooring. Walking barefoot is unbearable, yet some rides require guests to leave their shoes at the entrance. The long distances between entrances and starting points mean you either endure the scorching ground barefoot or leave your shoes behind and make a second trip to retrieve them. The park’s solution? A small sign recommending everyone wear shoes. Practical? Not really.

Poor Bathroom Conditions: The toilets are a safety hazard. They’re consistently wet, with no anti-slip measures in place, and visibly dirty. The cleaning frequency is appalling, and I can only imagine the legal and financial implications if someone were to...

Food worker Tina called my wife “disgusting”.

We wanted a refund for all our food as it was cold old and stale. She said no she won’t be giving us a refund as it was done via the table QR code and a 3rd party app. There is no information about that on the app or table or the sign that wet and wild have encouraging you to use the app, no terms and conditions showing that refunds can’t be made via the app.

The worker Tina did not allow my wife to even speak and explain what the issue was, my wife asked if she could talk however Tina kept talking over her and not allowing her to have a word in. My wife raised her voice a little being annoyed that she wasn’t permitting her to speak and was confused as that didn’t make any sense that we weren’t getting our money back. Tina then continued to argue and called my wife disgusting. My wife asked to speak with her manager, Tina said she is not in. A few minutes later when tina had had enough she said she is getting her supervisor. We questioned and said we just asked to speak with them and you said they were gone? Tina replied saying that well you asked to speak with the manager not my supervisor, they are two different things. Obviously we wanted to speak with someone above her, weather that’s a supervisor or manager she knew what we meant, she used that as an opportunity to belittle us saying that we should know the difference between supervisor and manager talking down to us. Tina’s supervisor that came out eventually and was very calm and collected, and then so where we.

My wife walked away and I wanted an explanation to why Tina called my wife disgusting and she said “because she is and if you want to keep arguing and fighting with me come over here” and pointed to a more empty space. All she wanted to do was fight, absolutely unbelievable the tone and words that came out of a staff member!

Wet n wild if you read this ask your customer support staff what happened and the random lady I didn’t know came in and back me up as she watched the whole thing. Even the staff that were cleaning tables were in shock about the other staff member and told me to report it to the service desk.

All Tina needed to do was provide generic customer service, speak calmly, allow the customer to speak and offer a solution, but instead Tina spoke in a raised voice, very frantic and angry from the beginning, it’s no wonder we had to raise our voices because she wasn’t allowing us to talk at all. Her service was shocking, we have never come across someone in hospitality who is so rude, aggressive and has the “I’m right your wrong attitude “ and likes to belittle customers.

Wet n wild I would like a report back on what steps you have taken with Tina on this matter. Personally I feel she would highly benefit from conflict resolution training and perhaps customer support training as based on our interaction she very much lacks these skills and paying customers should not be treated this way or...

For a venue with over 10,000 reviews, if mine can enlighten at least one unsure person, or perhaps reach the attention of someone in charge of this park, then it’s worth the effort of even writing this. The one star is for all the lifeguards I spoke to who were friendly and helpful. We were there from 9:30am until 4:30pm, we managed to get on a total of 4 rides. Over 6 hours were spent waiting. After waiting over an hour, we then had to carry a giant inflatable raft up a few flights of stairs. For a park that makes over $1000 for every 10 people who come in, just for the entry, you would think that they might be able to afford a conveyor belt or just a simple rotating line which carries the rafts up. Will add here that they make even more money by charging $179 on top of entry to be able to “skip the queue”, and sell bad food that made us sick, and charge $17 for the worst hot dog I’ve ever had. NONE of that money is going towards the experience of the visitor, it’s an unhygienic tourist trap and once you’re in you’ve spent the money doesn’t matter if rides are closed or weather gets bad. Whoever runs it, owns it, whatever company, I don’t care, this is a horrible day trip and there is absolutely no consideration for the visitors who pay to keep the park going and I’m sure to fill their pockets with all that profit. Could not find a table to sit at because of the amount of people just dumping their belongings on tables and leaving them there, no policies against that, no policies against people eating food in line and dropping it onto the wet floor for others to step in, no policies against the countless people who jumped the line in front of us already waiting an hour. Another ridiculous and limiting aspect is the weight limits for 2 person rides, we could not go on 4 of the major thrill rides for this reason. I am a taller than average woman within a healthy weight range, I am 70kg. My partner is over 6” and is pretty stocky and muscular, he is 120kg, the weight limit for 2 people is 180kg? Considering it’s pretty healthy and average to be 90kg for a lot of taller men or woman, that’s half the park inaccessible. If we let ourselves go and we’re overweight I wouldn’t add this point in but we are generally average people and are pretty physically active so it’s not good. If 1 person limit is 135kg is the other meant to be 45kg ?? It’s not the tourism it’s the park. Do more. Put more policy in place. Pay some guards. Put more rides in. Put a limit on how many people can enter. Serve decent food. It’s not that hard when you make that much money. Rip off, disappointed, waste of a day, waste of money, unless you go on a fluke day with no wait times, you will be...